Exercise. A cure for back pain.Does your back hurt at all? For many people the answer to that question is yes. It is incredible the number of people that suffer with back pain and do nothing about it. I have been guilty of this in the past. But do you realise that this pain has a massive effect on your mood, it affects the choices you make and reduces your productivity so at the end of the day, though it is a hassle, back pain is something worth stopping in its tracks.The most common cause of back pain derive simply from muscular imbalances.
Let’s consider a normal workers day… wake up, commute to work, work, and commute home, eat and watch TV, sleep. Sound familiar? Admittedly that was quite a brutal depiction of a normal day, I’m sure there is a bit more variety, but I feel it didn’t go too far from the script. My point is that we spend the majority of our time in a sitting position (Google average time spent sitting of modern human). Now you may be wondering why this is a problem, why would there be chairs and sofas if we weren’t meant to be sitting down. The problem lies in both the way you sit and the length of time you spend sitting, both of which are responsible for muscular imbalances.
What is a muscular imbalance? Our muscles work as pairs. Remember physics at school and Newton’s third law? I didn’t which is why I had to Google it. It states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That’s how our muscles work. When one muscle contracts the other lengthens. An imbalance occurs when one muscle is stronger or one is weaker. Sitting for pro longed periods of time causes muscular imbalances, especially when you’re not sitting upright i.e slouching. This can cause tightness in certain areas and also make you more susceptible to injury. This tightness is what causes pain.
How can exercise fix muscular imbalances? By putting your body through different movement patterns and not spending your time sat down it can stretch out tight muscles and strengthen weakened muscles which will eventually bring your body back to balance. Pain from muscle tightness will therefore disappear and you will return your body’s mechanics back to how it should be.
I like to involve a lot of primal movements in my training sessions. If you suffer from back pain and know it has not been caused by a direct injury or disease it is most likely caused by muscular imbalances which I can help you fix. I can also take a look at your posture and see if there is anything that needs correcting and prescribe exercises that will help fix it. Back pain is something that affects a lot of people. Don’t just mask it, do something about it.